EU gives Ukraine $267 million in low interest loans for reform drive + MORE Apr 21st

BRUSSELS – The European Union has given Ukraine 250 million euros ($267 million) in low interest loans as part of a package to help revive the country’s lacklustre economy.
Top EU economy official Pierre Moscovici said Tuesday that the loans are meant for vital reforms “to stabilize the Ukrainian economy and create the conditions for sustainable growth.”
Ukraine’s economy was battered by almost a year of fighting between Russia-backed separatists and government troops.
Ukraine received major bailout loans from the International Monetary Fund, European Union and the U.S. last year, but has been requesting more with no clear end in sight to its economic problems.
The EU has promised Ukraine a further 1.8 billion euros once it makes clear how it will modernize its economy and fight corruption.
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When I first graduated from university, my primary goal, like most, was to find a decent paying job. I had rent to pay, things to buy, etc. But as my early working years slowly bled into a career, I started to become more cognizant about planning for my future. While retirement was still a long way off, I had learned about a few interim steps I could start working towards along the way.

The Canadian Government offers first time home-buyers, the opportunity to essentially borrow from themselves. Canadians can use up to $25,000 from their RRSP (Registered Retirement Savings Plan — Canada’s 401k to any Americans reading this) balance as a down payment. Unfortunately, shortly after I purchased my first condo, I stopped contributing to my RRSPs with any regularity. Okay, I stopped completely.

Fast forward, it has now been almost 10 years since my first condo purchase. Unfortunately, it has only been five years since I began refocusing efforts on my retirement savings portfolio. What I have come to learn since, is for those five years when I took my RRSP vacation, I missed a real opportunity to have my savings working overtime for me…

(THE CANADIAN PRESS/Fred Chartrand)
FEDERAL BUDGET EXPECTED TO SHORE UP TORY WEAKNESSES
It’s budget day in Ottawa, and with a federal vote due to arrive by Oct. 19, it’s also the unofficial launch of the 2015 campaign. Finance Minister Joe Oliver will deliver his first budget – the 11th since Stephen Harper’s Conservatives came to office in 2006. The headline fact is already known – it’ll be a balanced budget.
LOANS FOR NEWCOMERS TO BE INCLUDED IN FEDERAL BUDGET
More newcomers will have access to federal loans to help get their professional training up to Canadian standards as part of today’s federal budget. A government source tells The Canadian Press that the pilot foreign credential recognition loan program is set to be made permanent. The goal, as the Tories often put it, is to ensure doctors don’t come to Canada and end up driving cabs.
JURY SELECTION CONTINUES IN HALIFAX MURDER TRIAL
Jury selection will resume today in Halifax in the case of two people charged in the death of Loretta Saunders…

(MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images)
OTTAWA – The Conservative government is expected to court the support of older Canadians in next week’s federal budget with a number of measures aimed at demonstrating that they’re making seniors a priority.
A number of long-sought changes are believed to be in play, including changes to the rules that require retirees to start withdrawing cash from their registered income funds by a certain age, The Canadian Press has learned.
Groups have been calling on Ottawa to tweak or eliminate the rigid rules around registered retirement income funds, or RRIFs, in part because Canadians now live much longer than they did when the program was instituted in 1992.
Under the law, people must draw down minimum amounts from their RRIFs annually by the age of 71. The minimum payments increase incrementally until they hit 20 per cent when the person reaches 94.
The goal of the rules is two-fold: deliver a dependable annual source of income to retirees and ensure the government starts recouping revenue on tax-deferred savings from RRSPs…